Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey on Body Posture Among Undergraduate Physiotherapy Students

Abstract

Background: Posture is the alignment or orientation of body segments by maintaining an upright position. The postural deviations associated with change in young people’s behavior have increased. Incorrect posture refers to an irregular state of the body in which the body does not sustain a steady state and tissues and organs function normally in an erect position.
 Objective: The objectives of this study were to check the knowledge about body posture, attitude towards good and bad posture and practice for correcting the wrong posture to prevent complications in physiotherapy students.
 Methodology: An observational cross sectional study was conducted among the physiotherapy students from University Institute of Physical Therapy (UIPT), The University of Lahore Chenab Campus; Pakistan. For knowledge section Questionnaire on level of awareness of body use in young people was used, for attitude section a self-structured questionnaire and for practice section (Q-BAPHYP) was used. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (version 21.0).
 Results: Out of 202 physiotherapy students, 21(10.4%) were males and 181(89.6%) were females. 12.4% students were from 2nd year, 37.1% from 3rd year, 28.2% from 4th year and 22.3% from 5th year. Average age was 21.43 years. Among the total 36(17.8%) student’s had knowledge of good posture, 143(70.8%) often good posture. 168(83.2%) students responded of having a positive attitude towards good posture and only 11(5.4%) always practices good posture in their daily life. There is a positive but a weak correlation between knowledge and attitude (Spearman Correlation value=0.138)
 Conclusion: It was found that the physiotherapy students had knowledge of good posture and showed a positive attitude towards good posture but they are not well practicing it in their daily routine.
 Key words: Bad posture, Ergonomics, Good posture, Kinematics, Posture, Scoliosis

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey on Body Posture Among Healthcare Workers in Federal Medical Centre Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria

“…Knowledge was assessed by exploring the respondent's familiarity with different body postures while carrying out their daily activities. In this study, 63.2% had knowledge about good posture; this is consistent with the findings of Kousar et al, [7] on knowledge, attitude and practice of posture among physiotherapy students where a significant number of the participants (80%) had good knowledge about their posture. Also consistent with the findings of Ephraim-Emmanuel et al, [16] on knowledge, attitude and practice of preventing the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among Doctors in University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital where they found that majority of their respondents (96.4%) had good knowledge of musculoskeletal system disorders' prevention at work.…”

“…Healthy posture is the state of muscle and skeletal equilibrium that protects the body structures independently of attitude (erect, sitting, stooping, bend) or in which these structures are functioning or resting against injury or progressive deformity. In such situation's muscles function more effectively and thoracic and abdominal organs are given optimal position [7]. Bad posture can cause fatigue, muscular strain and can cause pain in later stages.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice of Ergonomics Among Physiotherapy Undergraduates in Malaysia

“…In contrast, participants in another study of physiotherapy students had inadequate ergonomic skills in their practice (Kousar et al, 2022). Moreover, only 4.6% of dental students practiced good ergonomics (El-sallamy et al, 2018).…”

“…According to El-sallamy et al, 2018, nearly half of the dentistry students have fair ergonomics knowledge, with 84.8% having a positive attitude towards ergonomics but only 4.5% practicing good ergonomics. Similarly, good knowledge of ergonomics and a positive attitude towards ergonomics was reported among physiotherapy undergraduate at the University Institute of Physical Therapy in Pakistan (Kousar et al, 2022). However, these students were noted not to practice good ergonomics (Kousar et al, 2022).…”

“…Similarly, good knowledge of ergonomics and a positive attitude towards ergonomics was reported among physiotherapy undergraduate at the University Institute of Physical Therapy in Pakistan (Kousar et al, 2022). However, these students were noted not to practice good ergonomics (Kousar et al, 2022). There is a discrepancy between knowledge, attitude and practice regarding ergonomics which may be related to many factors such as increased workload, time constraints and lack of resources (Ephraim et al 2019).…”